Marvel's movie plans are expanding out into the cosmos with Guardians of the Galaxy looking more and more like the studio's big 2014 tentpole pic, but back on terra firma, Edgar Wright got cameras rolling on his long gestating Ant-Man adaptation, in the form of a test reel. Wright spent almost a week of his June shooting sample footage to get a handle on the tone and effects that will be needed to film a Marvel superhero who's one of its biggest and smallest.
Ant-Man, in his original context, is Hank Pym, a genius scientist who can manipulate the size of objects and organisms, the ultimate application being the creation of his crime-fighting persona, Ant-Man, who can grow or shrink at will and command ants with the help of a special helmet. As Pym was an original founding member of The Avengers, Wright was ready to shoot Ant-Man as part of Marvel's Phase 1 of build-up to The Avengers, but the project was eventually pushed back.
Since then, Wright has been busy on a third draft of the script, which he co-wrote with Attack the Block writer-director Joe Cornish. Despite the comedic pasts of both, Wright has stressed that their Ant-Man adaptation will be "more of a full-on action adventure sci-fi film but with a comedic element."
Although the test reel is an encouraging sign that Ant-Man will finally be coming to theaters, THR notes that Wright will first be directing The World's End, the third collaboration between him and pals Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, which shoots this fall.
